


Time as a Fickle Thing

by scarletrebel



Series: Commissions [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 11:57:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13658505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarletrebel/pseuds/scarletrebel
Summary: This was a (long waited for) commission by nattiebug14 on tumblr. They asked me to write their Guardian Carver introducing his daughter, Carina, to Osiris.





	Time as a Fickle Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Nattie requested this in December as part of my Christmas commissions and was a goddamn saint for being patient with me writing it as some real life things came up that got in the way of me making progress on it. So, it's a little bit longer than they requested for that reason, as an extra thank you for understanding.

“Carina, sweetheart – Carina!”

Carver really needs to keep an eye on the amount of time his daughter spends with Hunters.

They’d been waiting patiently enough, right where they were asked to. The gate to the Infinite Forest hummed quietly behind them, its interdimensional waves drifting delicately across the large door. Remnants of the Red Legion rage their hopeless battle against the Vex across the dunes of Mercury, and Carina’s shots at the Legionaries did well to keep them from disturbing the semblance of peace.

It gave Carver time to think, time to worry. Unfortunately, this left him unable to notice when his daughter ran off to engage in a public event.

His parental instinct makes him feel embarrassed as soon as it kicks in. Really, the younger Warlock is far more capable than his need to protect her can dissuade. He knows this, and yet, watching her fling herself into the fray so haphazardly makes him wonder where Carina’s years have gone, how long it’s been since she was playing with void Light on her father’s knee. Decades have passed, in the blink of an eye.

His daughter makes him fiercely proud. He watches her leap without hesitation into a Vex construct, one designed to catapult her to an adjacent island and as it does, the swarm of Guardians that follow her remind Carver of a conversation some years ago.

“But, I’m not a real Guardian,” his daughter had said, her bright blue eyes staring up at him in disappointment, breaking Carver’s heart. “Am I?”

He’d thought very carefully before answering, kneeling down in front of where she sat on a box of crates hidden away in the ships bay of the old Tower. Her head forcefully bowed, her lips trembling along with her hands which he had grasped and held so firmly.

“Eos,” a firm vice pulls him out of the memory, and he turns around with little to no grace. “Everything alright?”

Osiris stands a couple of steps above him, Sagira hovering peacefully at his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” he answers, straightening himself out. “How’s the forest?”

“The Vex are finding their simulations more and more inaccurate thanks to your fireteams aid in destroying Panoptes.” Osiris starts down the stairs. He’s left his helmet off, and his bandana sits crumpled underneath his chin. Carver wonders how he manages to put such a legend at ease around him, but he supposes killing one of the Vex’s infinity simulators helped in that endeavour.

(He also supposes, trying to block out Avia’s scathing retort at the idea of ‘legends’, that Osiris is a man and a Guardian just as any other; in spite of being just out of reach to comfortably call a friend. Whether that be by his own design or a consequence of his work against the Vex and the Darkness, Carver saves that question for another time.)

“That’s good to hear,” Carver says as Osiris takes a spot besides him. They watch the public event concur, Carina holding something in her hands as she is flung from one of the islands back into the middle. She deposits it triumphantly above the Vex Gate Lord wreaking havoc in the middle, and floats down out of sight to re-join the chaos.

“That one yours?” Sagira asks, her voice filled with mirth.

You wouldn’t think it,” Carver sighs wistfully. “Always throwing herself into trouble.”

“What are you talking about? That sounds exactly like you,” Sagira floats over to Carver, her one eye somehow throwing him a sarcastic glance. “Even if you don’t want to admit it.”

Carver laughs, small. “She wants to meet you. I would have mentioned as much in my message, but you’re not an easy man to find when you don’t want to be.”

“Ooh, yeah, my bad,” Sagira says. “We got pretty caught up in the Dark Future, had to take some precautions. You know, to be on the safe side.”

“What does she wish to discuss?” Osiris asks, and Carver can’t help the chuckle that falls from his lips.

“About as much as practically every other Warlock in the Tower.”

Osiris grunts.

Carver raises an eyebrow at Osiris’s steady gaze. “Haven’t you heard how the younger Guardians speak about you? They barely know anything about what the city was like before their resurrections, to them you’re just a whispered name, an example of consequence.”

“And she couldn’t have spoken to yourself or Ikora to learn the actions that lead to that consequence?”

Carver stiffens. “Oh, she knows. Forgive me, I didn’t mean to sound vague. Carina’s curiosity is insatiable, it’s found her in trouble more than once. And I’m certainly not asking you of all people to curb that.”

Carver doesn’t miss the small smile that tugs at Osiris’s lips. He continues, “She’s different. And I don’t mean that as a father talking about their child. Carina wasn’t reborn. The Light chose her at a young age, and in truth it isn’t my story to tell. Of all people that might be able to shed some clarity, though…”

The air around them stills, Osiris’s face is as impassive and unreadable as ever.

“Oh come on,” Sagira says then, catching her Guardians attention. “You can’t blame the girl for taking advantage of having connections that other Guardians don’t.”

Sagira’s tone toes the line of cheek and seriousness, and Carver bats her away with a smile on his face and a wave of his arm.

The familiar sound of breaking metal, the electronic cries of a defeated Gate Lord fill the air along with the yells of triumphant Guardians. Carver watches his daughter peel around the corner a few seconds later, running towards where they stand, and gliding over the steps to meet them.

“That was quick,” Carver says. “Did you grab your loot?”

“Nah,” Carina breathes. Her helmet dematerialises to reveal her scarlet Mohawk curving down her head, her bright eyes blinking rapidly.

“Oh, okay. Are you sure you don’t want to grab it?”

“No it’s fine, it’ll just go to the postmaster anyway,” Carina assures her father. They both miss the tug at Osiris’s lips, the forlorn stare in his eyes as he watches the exchange between the two Awoken.

“Alright.” Carver says, and as his daughters eyes shift to Osiris, he takes a breath.

“It’s an honour to meet you,” Carina smiles, extending a hand. Osiris laughs, a small exhale, and grabs her hand as Sagira flies around Carina’s head, tutting as she faces the young Warlock.

“Don’t be saying something like that to him,” she chides, not unkindly. “All this buzz is enlarging his ego in ways even I didn’t think were possible.”

“And you must be Sagira,” Carina’s eye’s crinkle as the Ghost preens. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Did you really call the entire consensus ‘haters’ when you two left the City?”

“You bet I did!” Sagira exclaims, making Carina laugh and Osiris roll his eyes.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Osiris says, giving a firm shake and then pushing Sagira gently out of his eye line. “Your father says you have much to discuss.”

“Oh, yeah, much,” Carina casts her eyes down, suddenly shy as she asks; “If, if you think you have enough time?”

“Oh! Sagira cries, bobbing up and down. “How cute!”

The Ghost does a loop around the two Guardians, finishing at Carina’s shoulder, giving it a small nudge.

“Come along young one, let’s give the older generation chance to say goodbye without making it weird.”

“Oh,” Carina stumbles at first but eventually moves forward, past Osiris and up the stairs. “Yeah, okay. Bye dad! See ya later!”

“Love you!” Carver calls, seemingly caught off guard as well. Osiris steps in front of him, arms crossed as his daughter disappears through the gate, Sagira chatting insistently by her head.

“Her Light _is_ different.”

Carver ruffles. “Yes, but she’s a Guardian nonetheless.” Then he sighs, runs a hand over his chin. “It took me and Cornelia long enough to convince her of that.”

“She’s the first?”

“In what recorded history of the Guardians I could find, yes.”

Osiris hums.  

“She may have her questions about it,” Carver starts, trying his hardest not to sound like he’s asking for yet another favour. “I know you have your own opinions on the Light and the Darkness. She’s struggled enough with who she is, tried to prove herself to the universe. All I’m asking is--”

Osiris waves his hand, a small smile on his face that makes it so that Carver doesn’t feel too much like a fool for rambling.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been asked to tread carefully,” the old Warlock says, pulling his bandana back over his mouth. “But, it’s the first time a friend has. I’ll do my best to answer her questions.”

Carver smiles back at him, extending a hand and appreciating the firm handshake Osiris gives him.

“Hey! Old men!” Sagira’s voice, purposefully shrill calls in their comms. “We’re getting bored here!”

“Try not to put too many radical ideas in her head,” Carver chides, summoning his own Ghost. “She’s already got Avia for that.”

Osiris chuckles. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much nattie <3


End file.
